How Do I Get Up There?

The sketch group How Do I Get Up There? - aka Chris Forbes, James Kirk and Kevin Mains - present their sketch show pilot on BBC Scotland on Sunday. We caught up with them to find out more...

Hi guys. Er, so, how do I get up there?

We're still trying to figure that one out ourselves! We'll let you know if we ever find out.

It's quite a unique name. How did you arrive upon it?

The story of our name is a well-guarded secret. Mostly because it's a pretty boring tale.

There has always been confusion over our name. We probably should have changed it years ago, as no one can remember it. People always get it mixed up with other questions like 'Which way did they go?', 'Why are you up there?' or 'How do I get down from here?' - that kind of thing. We find that quite amusing though. It's better than some of the other names we considered, like 'Songs That Elephants Sing' and 'Princess Ribena's Pony'.

How did the three of you first meet?

Chris: We all met through Langside College where we studied Acting and Performance. Myself and James were in the same year and hit it off straight away and then when we met Kevin three years later. There was just an instant connection, both in terms of friendship and creative ambition and so we started working on ideas pretty soon after.

So you now have a sketch show pilot on BBC Scotland... what can viewers expect if they tune in?

We hope there is something for everybody in the show. There is a mixture of more traditional sketches alongside some slightly more surreal ones.

We also have some character driven sketches and scenes where we are essentially playing exaggerated version of ourselves, which are pretty revealing.

Across your time working together on live shows, you've written more sketches than can fit in a half hour TV show. How did you decide which ones you'd put on television?

There was a lot of debate but all our favourite sketches made it into the show. We also had to write a good number of new sketches specifically for the pilot as a lot of our live stuff just wouldn't have worked on TV.

A couple of the sketches involve singing... are you all secretly wannabe musical actors?

Ha ha! Chris and Kevin actually love singing, but James hates it! We made sure James has the least amount to sing in the sketches so that he'd agree to do them.

Two of the sketches you'd previously filmed for a BBC Worldwide YouTube series. It must have been an interesting process to get to film them a second time, with tweaks?

Yeah, it was quite bizarre actually, but really helpful as well. We were able to identify what did and didn't work in the first versions and improve them for when we came to filming them again. We also had a bigger budget so we are wearing nicer clothes in the pilot! Ha ha.

It turns out Chris is rather good at impersonating a horse. How did you find this out, and isn't it a bit worrying?

We've secretly suspected Chris had a hidden horsey talent for years now and this sketch is the proof we have waited for. If he wasn't showcasing his inner stallion in this show, we think he couldn't have easily won Britain's Got Talent with this incredibly skill.

One of your best sketches, which we see at the end of the TV episode, involves reactions to different types of drinks. What are your drinks of choice in real life, and do any of you get 'too sexy' if you've had one too many?

We are all pretty boring in that regard as we are all stereotypical Tenants drinkers! We've come up with some of our best sketches whilst drinking, so that's pretty sexy.

James claims that Chris threw a hammer at him once when they were drunk, and there is certainly nothing sexy about that!

Wowsers. Is it frustrating you're going to be on BBC Scotland? The BBC rarely networks Scottish comedy nationwide.

It is frustrating, yes, as we believe we have made a very non parochial show that could work anywhere.

Thankfully, these days you can see pretty much anything, one way or another, where ever you are, and our show is no different. People all over the UK can catch the show on Sky/Freesat channel 970 and also on the iPlayer shortly after the pilot has been broadcast.

Presumably you'd be up for making a full series if given a chance? There's not enough sketch shows on TV at the moment is there?

We'd obviously love to be given the chance to make a full series as we have so many ideas about what we could do.

There seemed to be a mini sketch boom a while back (especially on the live circuit) but there are definitely not enough making it on to TV. We think that's partly because they are so hard to get right, but hopefully we've done alright!

Hopefully it's good timing for us right now, as there are currently no Scottish sketch shows on TV. Hopefully, we can fill that void.

Whilst you await to hear if the BBC wants more, what are you up to?

Other than sitting by the phone waiting for the Beeb to call, we all have a lot of stuff keeping us busy in the meantime. Kevin is currently filming a new BBC drama called Stonemouth alongside an incredible cast, and James and Chris are part of Scot Squad which starts on Monday 27th October - the night after our pilot has been on. People will probably be sick of the sight of us!

'How Do I Get Up There?' is on BBC Two Scotland on Sunday 26th October 2014 at 10pm.